


For the Good of the Children

by God_of_Doors



Category: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Genre: Babby's First Murder, M/M, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-15
Updated: 2020-03-15
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:34:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,710
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23152585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/God_of_Doors/pseuds/God_of_Doors
Summary: Grelod the Kind will no longer be able to terrorize the young orphans of Skryim, but Arden wrestles with the part he played in the process. Unfortunately he may not have the time to come to terms with it before Teldryn squeezes it out of him.Written for OC Whump WeekDay 2: Hiding an Injury
Relationships: Male Dovahkiin | Dragonborn/Teldryn Sero
Kudos: 29
Collections: Arden and Teldryn





	For the Good of the Children

Arden knew he’d messed up the moment he was over the wall. The angle was wrong, the ground was too close, and the fact that he still had an unsheathed dagger in his hand made a tuck-and-roll landing a risky endeavor. Thus, he hit the ground hard, feet first, and immediately felt one ankle roll off to the side just as he’d feared. He righted himself as quickly as he could and hobbled off into the darkness, wiping the blood from the blade with the inside of his cloak, heartbeat pounding in his ears so loudly he was concerned he wouldn’t hear someone coming until they’d already spotted him. The commotion behind him grew, but he still kept to the shadows until he felt comfortable that his distance from the scene of the crime wouldn’t implicate him immediately.

Arden circled around the orphanage painfully slowly, giving it a wide berth and trying his absolute best not to limp. Finally, he had to stop, feigning interest in the disturbance while he waited for the throb in his ankle to ease. He was still walking, so he knew it wasn’t broken, just sprained, and would be easily put right with a simple healing potion as soon as he could get back to the Bee and Barb and find one.

A guard spotted him, and suddenly began making his way over with determined purpose. Arden felt his heart rate pick up dramatically, but he took a risk and lowered his hood. He’d already been outed as dragonborn in the city, and he hoped that it granted a few points in his favor. The show of casual innocence didn’t quite appease the guard but the intensity of his focus on Arden did seem to lessen a little as he strolled up.

“Bit late to be wandering around, isn’t it?”

Arden swallowed the nervous chuckle and shrugged his shoulders instead. “Couldn’t sleep. You know how it is.” He glanced back toward the orphanage, defying the guilty urge to distract and deflect. “What’s going on?”

“There’s been a murder,” the guard answered, and Arden finally deemed it appropriate to allow his natural nervousness to surface. “I’m to keep citizens away until we find some answers. You didn’t happen to see anything suspicious, did you?”

“No, but I guess I better get back inside before I do.”

“That might be best,” the guard agreed. “Stay safe out there.”

Arden nodded. “You too,” he muttered, waiting a moment for the guard to shift his attention elsewhere, but after the briefest of pauses, he realized the guard had every intention of watching him walk back to the inn. Having already shown his face, Arden turned away and pulled the hood back up to hide any pained expression that might show through as he hurried away. He made it inside and skirted past Keerava at the bar, gratefully using the wall to help him balance as he climbed the stairs.

Finally out of sight and having successfully evaded suspicion, Arden felt himself beginning to tremble. Grelod the Kind had been his first kill in cold blood. He hadn’t even killed any of the Thalmor who’d been torturing prisoners in Northwatch Keep, but this felt different. These were children, sleeping literal feet away from a tiny, child-sized torture room.

They were safe now, though. Whatever horrors they’d endured, there would be no more for them or any other children that found themselves there. Arden inhaled slowly through his nose and out through his mouth. He just needed to keep his hands steady enough to get a healing potion from his bag without waking Teldryn, and then he could lie back down, make his excuses about having needed to take a walk when Teldryn inevitably woke up from being jostled, and allow the familiar security of Teldryn’s arms around him to soothe him into sleep. As he approached their room, however, he spotted a dim glow seeping out from under the doorway, occasionally disturbed by a moving shadow from within.

It seemed that the healing potion was going to have to wait. Arden went ahead and removed his cloak, sure to fold it over his arm in a way that the bloodstain on the inside wasn’t visible. When he opened the door, he found Teldryn sitting on the bed, fully dressed and in the middle of putting on his shoes.

“Arden!” Teldryn’s hands paused, half-tied laces falling from his fingers. “Where the fuck have you been? I was about to go out looking for you!”

Arden took a single step into the room so that he could shut the door behind himself. Without the hood it would be harder to hide the pain on his face, and if he failed Teldryn was sure to ask questions about why he’d been trying to hide it. He would also ask questions if Arden let on that he was injured though, and Arden was far more willing to lie by omission than to lie outright to Teldryn. The only option was to not fail. “I was just outside. Couldn’t sleep.”

Teldryn kicked off his shoes again with a frown. “Something bothering you?”

“No.” It wasn’t bothering him anymore.

Teldryn came up to Arden, taking his cloak from his hands and setting it aside. Arden kept his eyes down, tracking the cloak in his periphery to make sure it didn’t fall open. So far so good. He just needed to make it through getting undressed and back into bed. He was certain an opportunity would present itself in the morning to sneak a healing potion and do something about the cloak. 

Teldryn hooked a finger under Arden’s chin and pulled until Arden was looking him in the eyes. He searched Arden’s face for a moment, but seemed to accept the explanation. “Leave a note or something next time,” he murmured. “You had me worried.”

Arden offered a small, apologetic smile. “I will. I’m sorry.”

Teldryn sighed and turned away, pulling his shirt over his head as he went, and Arden stole the opportunity to hurry to the bed without having to maintain a mask of neutrality. Once seated, he had to clench his jaw against the pain of removing his boots. The injured ankle was starting to swell significantly, but Arden swiftly shed the rest of his outer clothes and hid his feet under the blanket before Teldryn noticed. Teldryn slid into the bed next to him, holding out an arm in invitation, which Arden immediately accepted, curling into his usual position with his head tucked under Teldryn’s chin. With Teldryn’s fingers gently toying with his hair, Arden was eventually able to relax enough to doze off.

He didn’t feel as though he’d been asleep very long, but a sensation down near his foot was nagging him into consciousness. When Arden finally lifted his head to investigate, his heart nearly stopped. At some point he’d shifted off of Teldryn’s chest, and his injured foot had emerged from under the blanket. The annoying sensation was Teldryn perched on the end of the bed, stroking Arden’s calf above where his ankle had turned several different shades of purple and swollen to the size of a small melon.

Sensing that Arden was awake, Teldryn looked up, a variety of emotions warring for dominance in his expression. “What happened?”

“Uh,” Arden stalled. He tried to pull his leg away from the touch but the motion sent a stab of pain through his foot, and he cringed before he could catch himself, not that policing his expression would have done him much good at that point.

Teldryn pressed his lips together, but he rose from the bed and wandered over to Arden’s pack by the door, rooting around for a moment before producing a small healing potion and returning to hand it off to Arden. Arden drank it wordlessly, still struggling to come up with an explanation. Unfortunately, Teldryn seemed content to let the silence stretch between them until finally Arden sighed.

“I jumped off a wall and landed wrong.”

Teldryn blinked. “What were you doing on a wall?”

Arden swallowed, but the lump of fear in his throat remained. “Avoiding the guards.”

Teldryn scowled. “Enough guar shit, Arden. Just tell me what the fuck happened last night.”

“I…I don’t want to.”

Hurt won the war of emotion on Teldryn’s face, and then suddenly it was gone, replaced by the cool mask of indifference he’d worn when they first met. “Oh. Well then.”

He pulled away, and Arden could almost feel a wall go up between them. “No,” he whimpered, almost involuntarily. “Don’t…Tel, I–”

“No, you don’t have to tell me,” Teldryn huffed. “Let’s just get dressed, shall we?”

Arden launched himself forward, arms wrapping around Teldryn’s shoulders. Teldryn went stiff but didn’t shove him off, so Arden turned his head so his mouth was near Teldryn’s ear. “Teldryn, I killed someone last night,” he whispered harshly. “I killed her in cold blood and I don’t regret it.” He felt Teldryn’s demeanor shift under his arms, but he still didn’t let go. “Are you happy now? To know that your ‘naive and innocent’ boyfriend is an unrepentant murderer?”

Teldryn gave a small sigh. “It was that woman at the orphanage, wasn’t it?”

“…Yeah.”

“Arden, you did Riften a favor.” Teldryn took Arden lightly by the wrists, twisting so he could look him in the eye. “I’m proud of you.”

Arden’s thoughts ground to a halt as Teldryn kissed him. The kiss was chaste and brief; he could almost taste the fact that Teldryn was still upset, but it seemed that he was going to be able to get over it quickly.

“Just tell me things,” Teldryn said softly as he pulled away. “You were the one who insisted there shouldn’t be secrets between us.”

Arden closed his eyes in shame. He had said that, back when they were first starting to define their relationship as more than friends. “You’re right.” He leaned his forehead against Teldryn’s collarbone, testing the waters to see if he would tense or pull away. To his relief, Teldryn did neither, instead wrapping his own arms around Arden, and they sat like that until hunger eventually forced them to dress and seek out some breakfast.


End file.
